


The Conversation You Never Want to Have

by anoyo



Series: Author's Favorites [10]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-12
Updated: 2009-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-03 05:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/pseuds/anoyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alphonse asks Edward if there's any truth behind the rumors circulating about him and Mustang.  Then, years later, he asks again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Conversation You Never Want to Have

**Author's Note:**

> [Kouri](http://kouriarashi.livejournal.com) wanted FMA fic where somebody wonders about if there really is something going on between Roy and Ed, but where it isn't answered, so she can assume there wasn't and I can assume there was. I think I delivered?
> 
> This fic is in two halves; the first half is pretty general, no spoilers. The second half takes place after the movie, and is kinda spoiler-y, though not really _detail_-specific. The second half is pretty easy to tell, but for pain's sake, it's denoted with *~*. Uhm, yes. Originally posted [here](http://anoyo.livejournal.com/141919.html).

Alphonse had always been the quieter of the two Elric brothers.

Now, of course, that was meant to be taken with a grain of salt, since, as a looming, clanking suit of armor, he was never particularly _silent_. For all intents and purposes, however, he had always been quieter. No one -- except Ed, thus negating his own point -- was going to be trying to argue that statement.

No one with half a sense, however, would equate Al's quiet nature with his being any less intelligent or thoughtful than his brother. He just, well, didn't need to make sure the entire world knew that he was thinking about something.

It would also startle nearly no one to be told that a lot of what Al contemplated had to do with his brother. They might have figured that it had more to do with their "quest" than it did, and often they would be completely correct. Sometimes, though, he was just thinking about his brother, seeking to understand him even better than he already did.

Knowing Ed was something Al excelled at, though he would never claim to ever completely understand his brother. That was, aside from being impossible, a statement that ruined itself as it was being made. And Al, when he wondered about something, had always been man enough to ask about it.

Lately, Al had been doing a lot of watching his brother. There were a lot of things he'd started doing that had Al puzzled. For instance, while studying, he would sometimes become flushed and proclaim a need to "go for a walk" before disappearing for variable amounts of time. He was getting a lot more "cat calls" than he had before, too, though Al was sure Ed would write that off as simply growing up, and of course Ed would grow up to be attractive, whatever was Al wondering for? What concerned Al more was how many of those cat calls seemed to be coming from the military staff that they saw on a daily basis, and the fact that they were more teasing than anything else.

All of this puzzled Al, and so, one day, proving that he was truly the better adjusted Elric, he decided to simply ask.

"Brother?" Al began, making sure he had Edward's attention.

Ed looked up from the sandwich he'd been verging on decimating, eyebrows raised in a perfectly average expression of response, before he said, "What?"

Al knew better than to beat around the bush with his brother. If Edward really had no idea what he was talking about, they'd be there all day; if he did and didn't want to really answer, he could write his answers off in playing the word game just as well as Al. And so, he asked, quite simply, "Are you sleeping with someone?"

"Al! I mean-- what-- Al!" Ed fumbled his sandwich, causing it to fall apart in a mess when it hit his plate. "What makes you think that? I mean, do you just think about things like that?"

Al rolled his eyes, or, well, the strange glowing markings that had become associated with his eyes. "You've been acting strange, and Lieutenant Havoc made that comment about you and sheets when you dropped your report off this morning." As a suit of armor, Al was at a great advantage when Ed was flustered. No matter what, his reactions would show on his face. "You're sixteen, brother. It would be perfectly normal."

Ed continued to look blind-sided for a few more moments, apparently in awe of something Al had mentioned, before dropping his head into his hands. "I don't want to have this conversation."

"Is that a yes?" Al asked.

"No!" Ed yelped, sitting straight again.

"Then is it a no?"

After sputtering for a few moments, Ed pushed his chair back from the table he'd been eating at and flailed for a few moments before managing, "I'm going to run away now!" and bolting.

"Hm," Al said, before going off to ask someone else. Maybe Hughes would have some idea.

*~*

In the days that had followed Al's embarrassing questioning, Edward had managed to stay out of attention by avoiding anyone who might add to his brother's observation. Then, quickly, there was simply no time for it, or anything else not immediately pertinent. To be honest, Ed had almost completely forgotten about it after passing through the Gate; it wasn't something he expected to ever be relevant again.

While he had hoped, he certainly hadn't expected Al to join him on the other side of their reality. Nor, truly, had he expected any of the events that transpired, but this perhaps least of all.

These were perhaps the reasons the more self-assured, adult Edward regressed to a state of childhood embarrassment when, innocently reading a treatise on rocket engineering and pointedly ignoring the way Alphonse was staring at him -- they'd just been reunited, and it was a fairly constant presence, the weight of Al's gaze -- Alphonse asked, "Was it Mustang?"

Edward blinked over his paper at his brother, caught gaping like a fish, "Wha-- Was _what_ Mustang?" Any number of things went through his head in response to Alphonse's question, but it is doubtful that even one of them came close to what Al had meant.

"I mean, back when you were in Amestris and we were looking for the stone. Do you remember when I asked you if you were sleeping with anyone?" Alphonse had, upon regaining his memories, also regained his ability to be almost serenely calm. When one had no facial features to worry about, one stopped worrying about them. The wonders that did for a poker face were wonders Al was contemplating teaching for spare cash.

They came in particularly handy as he watched his brother's jaw unhinge slightly. "I-- I have no idea how to reply to this question." Edward sounded a little astonished, and more than a little dazed.

"Well, brother," Al said, poker face firmly in tact, "it's really a simple yes or no question."

Rather than either, Ed asked, "What brought this on?"

Al recognized the tactic well, as distraction was often Ed's first choice in evading something, be it conversational or physical. "I was thinking about some of the memories I have of when I didn't have part of my memory. And it occurred to me, even without my memories, that you were awfully calm and unsurprised when you ran into Mustang when we were fighting the lunatic woman. And then, I guess, you just assumed he'd know what you were planning. I just thought that even if my uninformed self took note of that as strange, I should consider it more with my memories in tact. So I did." He smiled in a cute, innocent way that only children can manage; if he was stuck too young, he might as well make use of it. "And you did use either yes or no in that sentence."

"That's, uhm, a pretty big leap to make, Al. From 'comfortable' to 'they must have had sex.' I mean, really, Al." Edward was blinking rather furiously, obviously nonplussed by the conversation they were having.

"Well," Al said, "it was what I thought back then, too, that the only person the entire military office might have been teasing you about was the Colonel. Then, when I was looking back over those memories, it just made sense. So was it?"

"I can't run away again, can I?"

"I'm closer to the door."

"Damn."


End file.
